How to Read the Language of Objects in Art
Learn to Look at Art, Part 9: Objects
Welcome to the latest part in the Learn to Look at Art series — a growing collection of guides to help you understand and appreciate art history with fresh eyes.
This time, we’re exploring one of the most intriguing topics in the history of art: the meaning of objects in art.
If you’re just joining us, the full series is available in the Learn to Look at Art archive.
When the Spanish Baroque artist Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560–1627) began painting pieces of fruit and vegetables in carefully placed configurations, he seemed to want to infuse his composition with a significance beyond the sum of its parts.
Like a number of Cotán’s still life works, Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber is anchored in a shallow recess with a background of endless midnight-black. This type of painting is known as a bodegón (Spanish for a storeroom or tavern), the Spanish genre of still life painting, and Cotán was a pioneer of the form.
Between the five objects, a graceful curve sweeps down and to the right. The quince and the cabbage hang from lengths of string to make the curve possible. (In old kitchens, vegetables were frequently hung from a string to stop them spoiling.)
So how do we read objects like these when they appear in works of art?